Rojava conflict

Anti-American sentiments in the Turkish public have recently hit the roof because of the U.S.’ support for the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, the Turkish president has said, amid the two countries’s ongoing talks that aim to ease the severely strained bilateral ties.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Feb. 15 that the United States has “never given heavy arms” to the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and there is therefore “nothing to take back.”

Turkey’s Interior Ministry has added former Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) co-leader Salih Muslim and the leader of an outlawed pro-Bashar al-Assad organization, Mihraç Ural, to its “wanted terrorists” list along with several new names.

Turkey and the United States have agreed to work to de-escalate tension between the two long-standing allies over the latter’s support to the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria as the Turkish military carries out a massive operation to defeat it along its borders.

Istanbul police have seized invaluable archeological artifacts smuggled from areas under the control of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria into Turkey.

The United States reiterated its commitment to Turkey that it will take back heavy weapons it delivered to the People’s Protection Units (YPG) but refrained to give a certain time frame during high-level bilateral political and military talks in the Turkish capital Ankara on Jan. 23 and 24.

Kurdish people who live in Greece shouted slogans on Tuesday during a protest in central Athens against the Turkish offensive targeting Kurds in Afrin, Syria. Kurdish protesters, accompanied by some leftists, gathered in Syntagma Square, decrying Turkey's intervention in the war-torn country as "barbaric" and headed for the Turkish Embassy, which was being guarded by riot police in vans.

Turkey announced the start of a military operation against the Kurdish-controlled Syrian city of Afrin.

More than 70 bombs were fired at Aphrod in Aleppo province, with Turkey's army in the neighboring Turkish province of Hatay.

Female French jihadists arrested in Kurdish-held parts of Syria should face justice there so long as they can be guaranteed a fair trial, the French government said on Jan. 5.

Turkey and the United States are set to hold a high-level military dialogue in Ankara on Dec. 11 to discuss an ongoing row over the U.S.’s alliance with the People’s Protection Units (YPG).